Facebook’s friend suggestion feature has undergone some changes in recent years. Friend suggestions used to be a prominent part of the Facebook experience, recommending people you may know based on mutual friends, networks, workplaces, and educational institutions. However, Facebook has scaled back the friend suggestion feature over time. Here’s an overview of what happened to Facebook’s friend suggestions and why they are less prominent today.
The Early Days of Facebook Friend Suggestions
When Facebook first launched in 2004, it was limited to Harvard students. Part of the appeal was seeing who else from Harvard was on Facebook and connecting with them. The friend suggestion engine helped fuel Facebook’s early growth among college students.
As Facebook expanded beyond Harvard to other colleges and eventually the general public, the friend suggestion engine continued to be an important way for people to connect. Suggestions were based on mutual friends, networks, schools, workplaces, and other characteristics. If you just met someone at a party or event, you could easily find and add them on Facebook later. The friend suggestion tool bridged in-person interactions and online social networks.
The Evolution of Facebook’s Friend Suggestion Algorithm
As Facebook grew to billions of users, their friend suggestion algorithm went through multiple iterations. Some of the key developments include:
- Network-based suggestions – Connect with friends of friends
- School and workplace suggestions – Find people who went to your school or work at your company
- Location-based suggestions – People who live in your city or recently visited places near you
- Interests and activity-based suggestions – People who like similar pages, join similar groups, or engage with similar content
- Advanced machine learning – Facebook trained neural networks on huge amounts of social graph data to uncover non-obvious suggestions
The friend suggestion algorithm leveraged Facebook’s unique position with access to users’ social graphs, profile information, location data, and online activity. Advanced machine learning models took advantage of this data to optimize suggestions.
The Decline of Friend Suggestions on Facebook
In 2018, Facebook announced several major changes, including de-prioritizing friend suggestions in the News Feed. There were a few likely reasons behind this change:
- Data privacy concerns – Users were wary of Facebook accessing profile data for friend suggestions
- News Feed clutter – Facebook wanted to declutter the feed and highlight more relevant content
- Limited value – For many long-time users, friend suggestions were no longer useful
- Misinformation worries – Friend suggestions could increase content from potentially dubious sources
While Facebook claimed the change was to improve relevance, many observers noted the other factors likely influenced the decision. Facebook was facing scrutiny around data privacy and news feed content at the time.
Where to Find Facebook Friend Suggestions Today
While Facebook friend suggestions are less prominent today, they are still available in certain parts of the platform:
- Facebook menu bar – There is a Friend Requests icon with suggestions
- Profile pages – The Friends section may show suggested friends
- Messenger – May suggest new message recipients
- Groups – May recommend similar people to add to groups
However, suggestions are no longer a major part of the Facebook news feed experience. Users have to explicitly look for them now in other parts of the platform.
Alternative Ways to Find Friends on Facebook
If you are trying to connect with more people on Facebook, there are some other approaches besides friend suggestions:
- Search for people by name or email address
- Check out friends lists of people you know
- Join Facebook groups related to your interests
- Interact with popular pages and see who else likes them
- Use Facebook Dating to match with people (in some countries)
- Link your contacts and see who is on Facebook
- Use Facebook Search tools to find people by location, workplace, or school
It takes a bit more effort now, but it is still possible to connect with new friends on Facebook through targeted searches, networks, and groups.
The Future of Friend Suggestions on Facebook
It remains unclear whether friend suggestions will make a comeback on Facebook in a significant way. On one hand, helping people connect is part of Facebook’s mission. But on the other hand, data privacy issues, misinformation concerns, and abuse risks may keep friend suggestions limited going forward.
Facebook is focused now on small-group sharing and interactions rather than enlarging social networks. The emphasis is on connecting people who already know each other in real life. Unless friend suggestions can be made highly relevant and safe, they seem unlikely to return to their former prominence.
Conclusion
Facebook friend suggestions drove Facebook’s growth in the early days and helped connect people across schools, jobs, locations, and interests. But over time, the feature was scaled back due to privacy concerns, news feed clutter, and diminishing value to long-time users. While friend suggestions are still available in certain areas, they are no longer a core part of the Facebook experience. For those looking to make new connections on Facebook, there are alternative search and discovery options, but friend suggestions are unlikely to return as a major growth tool for Facebook given some of the risks involved.